


promise

by sea_level



Category: Project Blue Book (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cabins, Case Fic, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Walkie-Talkie Makeout
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 11:45:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18716395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sea_level/pseuds/sea_level
Summary: Michael and Allen go up to the mountains for a case. This is mostly a shallow excuse for fluff.





	promise

**Author's Note:**

> Ok anon, here's 2. A little later than I'd like but I'm...very easily distracted.

“Right, and how do I get to my text messages again?” Allen asks, holding the android upside down and away from his face like it offends him.

Michael gives him a tired look. “You know damn well how to get to your messages,” he says, straightening out the third leg of the tripod. “You think you’re funny, professor, but you’re not.”

Allen drops his arm and slips the phone into his pocket. “Come on. I’m a little funny.”

“Not one bit,” Michael says though he smiles despite his words. He taps the device that Allen’s brought with them. “Tell me what this one does?”

“This is basically just a souped up 360° camera. This is a motion sensor. This part takes air samples, and this part scans the nearby area and takes data so I can recreate what happened on a 3D model later if I need to,” Allen says. He holds up the second suitcase that holds an identical device. “We’ll need to set this one up ten feet 30° northeast.”

“Is that hot glue?” Michael asks, running his finger over where the clear plastic cover connects to the wooden platform that everything sits on.

“What else would it be?” Allen asks. “Our budget is abysmal.”

And it is. It covers gas and lodging well enough, but when it comes to high-tech equipment, they’re basically on their own. This isn’t the first time Allen’s been made to make something from scraps, though he supposes that’s why they pay him.

“Alright, let’s go over the plan again,” Michael says once they have the third tripod set up.

“I stay in cabin A and keep an eye on the site. You stay in cabin B,” Allen says.

“And under no circumstances...” Michael prompts.

Allen sighs. “Under no circumstances am I allowed to leave the cabin.”

“I know your curiosity tends to get the better of you, doc, but this time don’t even so much as touch that door until I come to get you.”

“We don’t even know if what “alien” is letting off is even hydrogen sulfide,” Allen protests. “It could be harmless.

“Allen,” Michael says, and when he does he sounds tired. “People have died.” He makes the final check to make sure the devices are secured and running. When he's done, he starts to lead the way to the cabin Allen will be staying in.

“I know,” Allen says.

“Even if your cameras catch anything,” Michael says. “Promise me you won’t go running out there.”

"I promise," Allen says.

" _Promise_ promise?" Michael asks.

"I won't leave the cabin until you show up, Michael," Allen says. "I promise."

The cabin isn't too far from the site, and, standing outside the front door, Allen can see the tripods off in the distance.

Michael unlocks the cabin and then hands Allen the keys. "Stay safe," he says.

Allen takes the keys and then pulls Michael in for a lingering kiss. He says, "I love you. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Love you too," Michael says.

Allen waits until he's out of sight before he closes and locks the door.

 

This case is one of the more dangerous ones. Most of the cases that they handle involve mere sightings and people claiming abduction, but there's rarely physical harm and much less often death.

This time, it's a little bit of a "monster in the woods" type of deal. Something with a pair of glowing red eyes and the smell of rotting eggs. It’s left three people dead and four traumatized survivors. All of the people who had died had done so without a scratch on them.

Allen's cameras have enough of internal power to keep them running for a few days, and they've got a large enough Bluetooth range that he can see what they're filming from his phone, despite the lack of any nearby cell towers. Nothing happens, of course, but he's set them up to notify him if something moves.

He seats himself by the window with a pad of paper so he can work some stuff out and keep an eye on the site at the same time.

As the sun dips below the horizon, the shadows stretch out over the otherwise deserted mountainside, and the temperature begins to drop, but there’s nothing outside. A few animals pass by, causing his phone to buzz, but it’s always a false alarm.

Past nightfall, Allen starts to drift off despite his better attempts to stay awake when his overnight bag starts to give off static.

Confused, Allen hauls it over the table and starts to dig inside. He doesn’t remember packing anything with a speaker. Despite this, he digs up a two-way radio, turned on and already tuned to a frequency.

The static stops and starts again, and then, “Allen?” It’s Michael’s voice.

“Michael,” Allen breathes. “Hey. What’s up? Is anything wrong?”

“No, no,” Michael says. “Nothing like that. Just missed you.”

Allen laughs. “I missed you too. So, walkie-talkies, huh? Were you going to tell me you packed them?”

“They were a bit of a last minute thing,” Michael says. “Figured we wouldn’t have a signal up here, and I needed a just in case.”

“In case of what?” Allen asks.

“Emergencies, and before you say anything, this counts,” Michael says. “I wanted to hear your voice and I couldn’t, so. Emergency.”

“I appreciate it,” Allen says, leaning back in his chair. He looks out the window into complete darkness.

“I also figured the walkie-talkies would be more your speed, what with them being older technology and all,” Michael adds. “You shouldn’t have any trouble understanding how they work.”

Allen snorts. “Oh, so it’s funny when you make the old man jokes, but it’s not when I do?”

Michael hums. “Maybe I’m feeling a little sentimental right now, but it is a little funny when you say them sometimes, and only sometimes. Did your cameras pick up anything yet?”

“Just wildlife so far,” Allen says. He unlocks his phone and pulls up the feed. The IR video provides nothing but the same.

“So we’re alone?” Michael asks.

“Maybe more so than I’d like,” Allen asks. “I’m alone and you’re alone, but we’re not alone together.”

“Aren’t we?” Michael asks. “All I gotta do is close my eyes, and I can imagine you’re here.”

“And all the button pushing and static help to complete the image, right?”

Michael laughs. “Yeah, it’s not quite the same. What would you do, though, if we were in the same cabin? Just you and me and the four walls surrounding us.”

“I would imagine we’d be talking about the case,” Allen replies.

“Mmh, not what I was thinking about,” Michael says. “Would we really have been talking about the case this entire time? That’s what? Four hours? There’s not that much to say.”

“We’d probably have gone off on some long tangent, but I see your point,” Allen says. “What would you do? If we were together?”

“I think I’d like to kiss you,” Michael says.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Michael says. “I mean, sure we’ve had little kisses here and there today, but we’ve been so busy, I haven’t had the chance to kiss you like I’ve wanted to.”

Allen closes his eyes and lets his mind wander. He allows his memory to construct a new scene from his experiences in the past. Bright. Vibrant. Joyful. “Yeah,” he says, reaching up to touch his lips. “I think I’d like that too.”

“You’re imagining it, aren’t you?” Michael’s laugh is warm and inviting, and Allen makes a noise of agreement. “Care to share?” he asks.

“Nothing you can’t easily imagine yourself,” Allen says.

“Tell me anyway.”

Allen thinks, trying to put it into words. “Slow and lazy, nothing we can’t break away from easily just case something happens.”

Michael makes an encouraging sound.

“It’s meandering and warm, mostly just to dwell in the moment. We aren’t heading anywhere fast. There’s no rush. No urgency. We have lots and lots of time.”

Michael’s silent, but he has a shortness of breath that he definitely intends for Allen to hear, so Allen continues.

“I’m in the chair at the table by the window. There’s another chair here. That one’s yours. We were talking, and then I said something, and you leaned over and kissed me. You end up in my lap. Kind of like that Sunday afternoon two weeks ago.”

“Which Sunday was that?” Michael asks.

“The one right after that movie,” Allen says. “We were in the kitchen. It was a little dark. The sunlight coming through the windows was the only thing illuminating the room.”

Michael makes a noise. “I remember that.”

“Yeah,” Allen says. “That was nice.”

“We did end up having sex after that though,” Michael points out.

“Well, it’s not exactly alike,” Allen says with a laugh. “Can’t exactly do that now.”

“Gotta stay on the top of our game,” Michael says and then yawns long and loud. “Shit.”

Allen laughs for real. “Just keep talking to me. We’ll keep each other awake.”

The carry the conversation for a good few hours until they exhaust all the good topics, and then they shift to companionable silence, letting the static do the talking. It’s much better like this. Allen feels much less lonely.

He does end up drifting off for half an hour in the early AM, but the buzzing of his phone jolts him awake. He fumbles to unlock it and then stares at the footage. There’s something humanoid and incredibly furry holding a fog machine under one arm stumbling through the forest.

It staggers up to one of the cameras and then lifts its mask, revealing a man underneath.

“Oh, Jesus shit,” the man whines. “Cameras! I can’t believe this. I’m in so much fucking trouble.”

Allen scrambles for the talkie. “Michael,” he says into the receiver, “you’re not gonna believe this.”

“Wha...?” Michael asks drowsily. He must have fallen asleep too.

“The alien? It’s some guy dressed up like Bigfoot.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“I’m completely serious,” Allen says. “He’s at the site right now.”

“Promise you’re not pulling my leg?” Michael asks.

“Promise.”

“Ugh,” Michael says. “Okay, I gotta. Gotta go get him. Hang tight. Don’t go anywhere.”

He’s gone before Allen can tell him that he will.

Allen watches the whole thing unfold from his phone. Michael shows up, a little disheveled and wielding a shotgun. He yells, and the guy in the costume drops the fog machine in his hurry to put his hands up.

All in all, it’s a rather anticlimactic affair. Michael picks up the fog machine and herds the man back in the direction of his cabin. A few minutes after Michael leaves the range of the cameras, his voice comes back through the talkie. 

“Got him,” he says, his voice a bit strained from the cold. “Nothing exciting happened.”

“I saw,” Allen says. “Good job.”

“Thanks,” Michael says. “Before you get any ideas about coming over to my cabin, I will remind you that this is both wolf and bear territory. And you promised.”

“Darn,” Allen says. “My evil plan is foiled.”

Michael laughs. “I’m gonna see what I can get out of him and then I’ll take him down to the station at first light. I’ll come to get you as soon as I’m done.”

“Be careful,” Allen says.

“I’m always careful,” Michael replies. “Get some rest.”

“You’re not always,” Allen protests.

“I will be this time,” Michael says. “Promise. Now go sleep.”

“Alright,” Allen says. “I guess since you promised.”

“I did.”

“I love you,” Allen says.

Michael replies, “Love you too.”

 

When Michael shows up at the cabin the next morning, Allen kisses him just like they’d talked about.

**Author's Note:**

> the guy dressed up like a monster and carried around a fog machine full of hydrogen sulfide because he didn't want people coming up the mountain or something i didn't really think it through lmao. mostly i was thinking of shrek and the whole "get out of my swamp" thing, but that's as far as i got.
> 
> very proud of myself for not letting me get carried away with worldbuilding and building up the case!
> 
> when i started writing this, the only thing i had was the opening joke, so i'm not sure how this all happened but ok!


End file.
